Myriads of portable tackle box designs exist, but few are adaptable for use aboard a fishing boat in view of regulations for securing objects to the boat and the conditions encountered on a boat such as water spray, vibration and rocking in the water. Live bait boxes have been mounted in racks secured to the gunwhale of a boat as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,614, May 17, 1988 to K. D. Gombosi. Portable type tackle boxes are secured to the boat in U.S. Pat. No. 1,929,833, Oct. 10, 1933, G. W. Van Vuren to permit loss if the boat capsizes. Thus a set of horizontally slidable trays are secured in place by a pivotable front shelf that serves as a work table. As such this tackle box must be mounted high, on the forward cowling, for example, and would be dangerous if mounted on a deck where it could encounter a fisherman's shins, particularly in choppy water.
No known prior art tackle box is particularly suitable for the needs of tournament fishermen. In such tournaments, such as a bass tournament where fishermen stand on the deck of a bass boat, it is essential that lures may be viewed, selected and changed quickly. Portable tackle boxes of the prior art are not arranged conveniently for this. Furthermore, most cannot be adapted to boat fishing by being secured to the boat, and if so, they would not be in an accessible position for fast, efficient selection and change of lures. Nor are they capable of handling efficiently for viewing and selection a large number of lures that are necessary for changes in water temperature, depth, color, weeds, desired lure depth and other fishing conditions frequently encountered.
Accordingly it is an objective of this invention to provide an improved on board fishing boat tackle box particularly adapted for tournament fishing.